Quit Smoking / Does Smoking Cause Depression?
Smoking which is the leading cause of various health issues also causes depression. Whilst people believe that depression leads to smoking, it’s the other way round. Smoking causes depression. Find out more.
It’s a general notion that depressed people smoke to feel better and gradually cope up. On the contrary, smokers gradually develop depression, down the line. Studies which confirm that smoking causes depression are delineated below.
Studies Establishing How Smoking Causes Depression
A new study reveals that smoking actually causes depression. The study surveyed 3,000 people in the St. Louis area. The results showed that while smokers had a 6.6 per cent risk of developing lifetime frequency of major depression; it was 2.9 per cent for non-smokers.
The Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) survey revealed that about 70% of male habitual smokers and 80% of female habitual smokers had major depression. The study also established that 30% of smokers show some symptoms of depression.
The Henry Ford Health System study confirmed that daily smokers (a person who smokes daily for one or more months) are twice at more risk of developing major depression than occasional smokers.
Some neurobiologic evidences also confirm the fact that tobacco smoke plays a crucial role in causing depression.
Why Smoking Causes Depression?
Smoking causes depression because of the withdrawal from a physically and psychologically addictive substance, called nicotine.
Nicotine which acts as a receptor for the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, indirectly stimulates the release of another neurotransmitter, dopamine, in the brain’s reward or motivation center. Eventually the brain becomes so much adapted to the presence of the drug that it no longer functions normally without it. After 20-30 minutes of smoking the last cigarette, nicotine withdrawal begins. This leads to anxiety, which is very closely related to depression.
Smoking as well as quitting smoking, both cause depression. Depression occurs when the smoker tries to abstain himself from smoking.
Ways To Quit Smoking
The smoker, though, undergoes depression after giving up smoking, health experts advise to quit it completely. They advise to replace nicotine with nasal spray, or chewing gum which can is quite effective in giving up smoking.
The antidepressant, bupropion (Wellbutrin), marketed under the name Zyban, is very beneficial for smokers to quit smoking.
Cognitive and behavioural therapies also help smokers to quit smoking. These therapies also treat depression.
In behaviour therapy the stimulus-response associations that lead to smoking are altered. Smokers are rewarded for not smoking. Moreover, the patients are provided help to solve problems and manage stress.
Cognitive therapy helps the depressed heavy smokers to quit smoking. It teaches patients to cope with the thoughts that lead to loss of control after a temporary relapse. It also imparts training on how to avoid catastrophic discouragement after a temporary relapse.
Depression, which is caused by smoking, can be effectively treated by giving it up. So quit smoking and lead a blissful life.
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April 27th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
There are a good many things in this life that are not good for you. Why don’t all of the people who are so worried about what other do to their own bodies mind their own business. You notice that no big fuss is made over alcohol, could it be because so many congressmen and other middle class whites drink? Alcohol is the cause for more beatings of women and children, deaths of our jock teenage boys. rape, fights in bars and deaths on the highway of innocent people for hundreds of years. Give us all a break, either bring back prohibition or shut the hell up and stop trying to control people. No ones really cares what you think. Look how well the war on drugs is going, prohibit smoking all together and we will start buying on the black market, which is what happens to anything you try to control over other peoples will. So shut the==== up. And don’t bother sending some bs, answer back. cause I could care less. Hypocrites
June 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
This is a major change from what the U.S. Navy teaches in it’s smoking cessation courses. I just began mine and they suggest that people suffering from depression smoke unknowlingly treating their undiagnosed depression. It’ll be interesting to bring this up in class next week. I’ve been trying to quit for years, and this makes more sense to me than anything else I’ve read
November 6th, 2008 at 7:20 am
[...] Depression [...]
August 25th, 2009 at 12:33 am
I’ve had depression my entire life, from as early as age 6 and wondering how my friends could be happy playing a game when I felt enormous doom. When I started smoking full time at the age of 16 I came out of my shell and started living my life. OMG (”oh my God” for you dumb asses) I did great in sports and school, I dated, I worked summer jobs, and I was able to enjoy life. With the above article clearly written for the left (find your conclusion and work backwards), I have to say that you’ve never truly experienced depression. If you have, imagine it 24/7 year after year. The medical society will never accept this point,
but there is something in cigarettes that keeps us going, working with or without meds. Jeff
September 21st, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I have been a smoker for 27 years. I had quit for 4 years. But do to stress that was unbearable to me, I started back a little over 3 years ago. I love my cigarettes with my coffee, after meals etc. But the reason I found this article is because after smoking a few I begin to get depressed and lethargic. I am on 2 anti depressants and allergy medicines and have been on them for almost 20 years. I have had numerous physicals with blood work, the only thing wrong is the depression and anxiety. During the 4 years I had quit smoking I was able to get off all medicines. Within a month of starting smoking again I was back on my medications. I want to quit again for these reasons plus more but it seems harder to do this time then the first time. And I quit cold turkey that time.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I’m trying to find information about what happens to me when I smoke. I feel alive when I don’t smoke, I can enjoy conversations with people, i’m much more mentally active and alert. I’m not going into the reasons why I smoke though but when I do, like I did today, I feel so tense, nervous, mentally slow, depressed, people think I am distant and cold and though i’m naturally outgoing and nice and when that comes out they think im arrogant because it’s sandwhiched between all of that. People dislike me even though I really hate it and I really want them to like me like I like most people. I know, this is very personal, I started NTR last week and fell off the bandwagon this weekend. I’m really just writing this in case someone else searches so they know they aren’t alone. Just keep trying to quit before it ruins your life like it is ruining mine.